Setting the Pace : Doctor Motivates Latino Youth Through Running and Education

When Frank Meza completed his first term as a UC Berkeley student, he brought home three Fs and a D.

Which makes him the perfect candidate to impart the joys of academic success to kids, right?

Right. University counselors had erroneously placed the pre-med student in advanced classes; after changing to freshman courses, he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s in public health from UCLA, bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from Cal State Northridge, and an MD from UC Davis. He is physician in charge of Kaiser Permanente’s East Los Angeles office, specializing in family practice and sports medicine.

Since he was 19, Meza has volunteered his time to make motivational speeches to Latino students and community groups, primarily in his native East Los Angeles. His inauspicious academic beginnings serve him well as a role model: If he could do it, he tells young people who express dim expectations, so can they.

Meza focuses on the importance of education for Latinos because, he says, “We have one of the lowest educational levels. One-third of us are immigrants. Mix into that the fact that we have no real concept of how the system works. If someone hears that college costs $30,000 a year and his family makes $15,000, he’s not going to have it in his mind to go.”

Away from the podium, Meza, an avid runner who helped create the Aztlan Track Club, also founded the East Los Angeles College-based Aztlan Athletic Congress in 1981 to encourage academic excellence through athletics. Now the organization’s co-chair, he coordinates running programs and events to raise funds for equipment and travel to competitions, gives physical examinations and advice on sports medicine and hosts weekly swimming sessions for the runners at his South Pasadena home.

Meza’s approach uses running as another model for achievement. “Running requires discipline. You derive a whole lot of physical and medical benefits from it. Sometimes, like in life, you have to do something you don’t want to do, but you do it anyway, and there’s a payoff even if it’s not immediate.”

Some of the runners have gone on to attend college on scholarships; two former state champions from Belmont High School are now teachers there.

Meza is also co-founder of Chicanos for Creative Medicine, an organization that since 1969 has provided educational opportunities and scholarships. He is searching for funding to distribute the 40-page “Chicano College Survival Guide” he developed, which offers information on financial aid, the Scholastic Aptitude Test, admissions and summer programs.